The Houston Texans have chosen their new head coach, almost four months after they fired Bill O’Brien in October last year.
Now the question of the team and the new head coach David Culley will be who will be his defender when he starts next season.
Deshaun Watson has already formally demanded his trade with the team, less than 24 hours after Culley was appointed coach and a few weeks after he threatened to do so because, according to various versions, the club did not fulfilled the promise to involve him in the general manager selection process.
The new coach certainly knew the responsibility he assumed when he accepted the job. He probably accepted without much to lose, but much to gain, if the situation and the reconstruction of the team can be arranged with or without Watson.
At 65, Culley will become the oldest to make his NFL head coach career after spending the last 26 seasons as a league assistant, including the last two catchers and the Baltimore Ravens passing game coordinator.
If Watson was already surprised that the Texans named Nick Caserio general manager, the safe situation was even more puzzling when he learned that the coordinator of a crime that was the fourth worst in the NFL by the way, Ravens, will be the new his head. trainer.
Baltimore’s success on offense in the last two seasons has been on the run … Watson is a passing defender who can only run as an instrument in his game, not as a primary weapon.
He had the best individual statistical season in 2020, despite his team’s 4-12 defeat, ending the reign of O’Brien, who was coach and general manager, and as a result of a series of very bad decisions from previous years. .
Watson went for 4,823 yards, 33 touchdowns, an average of 8.9 yards per game and just seven interceptions for a team that won just four games last season and changed its best receiver, one of the best in the league, DeAndre Hopkins, to just let him average receivers down.
“I’m sorry,” teammate JJ Watt told them as they left the field together after the last game of the season. “I lost one of your years. I mean, we should have had 11 wins. “
The Texans need players on both sides of the ball after the disaster, O’Brien left them as GM.
The relationship with Watson seems so broken that he officially requests the change of his team a few hours after the new coach was appointed and remains silent with the general manager or owner, Cal McNair.
For Culley, it will also be awkward to work on a team whose leader showed total upset in the hiring process and was known to have preferred Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bieneimy as coach. .
The Texans need to take advantage of Watson’s big moment, throw his “Ave Maria” to replace him with more high-profile collegiate selections and experienced NFL players.
He has to do it now, because everything indicates that it will be another virtual off-season.
The Texans have eight options in the next draft so far, but none in the first or second round due to O’Brien’s negotiations to land left-back Laremy Tunsil and wide receiver Kenny Stills, who is no longer on the team.